We are an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the history, culture and true lives of Romani people worldwide.
We confront racism and oppression wherever we encounter it.
We try to make connections with all the "isms" that make up western culture.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

SCOTLAND

Roma made scapegoats for the crisis

PHOTO A GYPSY BOY AND HIS SHETLAND PONY 1930www.news.bbc.co.uk
As unemployment rises and austerity measures bite, the scapegoating of minorities is growing across Europe. High up in the firing line are, as always, members of Europe’s 12 million-strong gypsy and Roma communities.

Small surprise then that a new report commissioned by Oxfam outlines the scale of discrimination levelled against the Roma community in Glasgow.

Having left their native countries in eastern Europe where they face rising levels of violence, sometimes aided and abetted by local politicians, Roma and gypsies from eastern Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania have settled legally in Scotland, many of them in Glasgow’s Southside.
But Scotland’s Roma have discovered their reception is sometimes worse than the conditions they left behind. A whistleblower at the Laurieston Jobcentre Plus (JCP), who has chosen to remain anonymous, was shocked at the levels of prejudice that prevailed.

Staff routinely referred to Roma people as “gypos, scum, beggars, suicide bombers and paedos”, she told the report’s author. They were blatantly discriminated against and not provided with benefits to which they were legally entitled.

Using evidence provided by more than 60 families about treatment by the job centre staff, the authors say that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) often treated claims by Roma as fraudulent. Sometimes it held on to passports and birth certificates for several years. The authors found that more than half of all Roma-related benefits decisions were subject to unreasonable delays. The result was that some one in five claimants faced homelessness.

The Govanhill report’s findings bears out the harsh truth about the treatment of Roma throughout western Europe which are detailed in a major new survey carried out by the European Union and the United Nations. The researchers found that:

only 15% of young Roma adults surveyed had completed upper-secondary general or vocational education, compared with more than 70% of the majority population living nearby

on average, less than 30% of Roma surveyed were in paid employment

about 45% of the Roma surveyed lived in households lacking at least one of the following: an indoor kitchen, toilet, shower or bath, or electricity

about 40% of Roma surveyed lived in households where somebody went to bed hungry at least once in the last month because they could not afford to buy food.

And their situation is worse than that of their neighbours regarding jobs, education, housing and health. All in all, "the results present a grim picture of the situation of the Roma surveyed," the report said.

Disadvantages for Roma were apparent across all 11 countries included in the surveys, which polled more than 22,000 households. "That is precisely what we find most shocking. We would have expected to find significant differences, but from the responses of the Roma people themselves and their neighbours, we see few differences,” Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos of the EU Agency on Fundamental Rights said.

Earlier this month, Roma were forced out of a Belgrade settlement by masked attackers who shouted: "Serbia for Serbs! Roma out of Serbia!". Blatant persecution against travelling people has seen the French government defy European law by forcibly deporting Roma back to Bulgaria and Romania.
In Italy, leaders of the Northern League have encouraged attacks while city authorities bulldozed a gypsy camp outside Rome. Meanwhile, in Essex, Basildon council is defying the EU’s commissioner for Human Rights with a new round of evictions.

History is full of ugly examples of how in times of economic crisis, high unemployment and political bankruptcy, racism is the name of the game. We urgently need to develop alternative economic and political solutions to dislodge the 1% who exploit society as a whole and target those at the bottom of the scale seeking safe havens from racism and discrimination.

2 comments:

Maybe if you fuckers would stop stealing everything that wasn't fucking nailed down people wouldn't hate you so much.

Illegally immigrate then a god damn crime wave sweeps whatever area you show up to 'squat' in.

Also, the whole "kidnapping" teenage girls for your filthy sons doesn't help your image. Don't say it doesn't happen because they just rescued a 14 year old girl here in Sweden who'd been kidnapped in another country to be some Gypsy bitch's son's wife. Of course he'd been raping her for almost a year, as she was held against her will inside for the ENTIRE time.

AND considering how filthy whorish the women act, how dirty most look, the garbage left behind from the camps, 11 year olds showing up pregnant, I mean for fucks sake it's ALL disgusting, of course people don't want you.

And how do you call it 'racism'? Do you even know what the word means? Gypsies aren't a 'race' I assume they are scientifically labelled 'Caucasian' though god knows I don't what they are; there's no 'racism' about it.

If your lot were clean, non-criminal, none slovenly fucking slave laboring thieves and pickpockets, and were like craftsmen or something, then people would not HATE you, you would be welcomed. It would be more like "OH, here come those neat gypsies, selling their wares and having a festival with music and food." something people would look forward to.

But you DON'T. And all I see is crime and filth, so of course you are despised.

The majority of sexual crimes committed in the world are not committed by Romani.If one is aberrant, that is hardly an indictment of an entire race.Most violence against women is committed by white heterosexual men.Check your facts before lashing out with your hate mongering diatribes.Morgan

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FLAG OF THE ROMA

LOLO DIKLO : RrOMANI AGAINST RACISM

Lolo Diklo : Rromani Against Racism is an organization dedicated to providing information about the true situation of the Romani (Gypsies) in the world today. We are committed to confronting racism and oppression wherever it is found.

BACKGROUND

The Romani are a people who are not very well known. We are an ethnic group of people originally from India. We left India and arrived in Europe sometime in the 1300's. There are many theories as to why we left India. This is the work of academics, and we have some. Most Romani are more concerned about daily survival to worry about documentation of our past. We know who we are.

What is known about the Romani is, for the most part, stereotypically based. We are portrayed as romantic, carefree wonderers or child stealers, pick pockets and beggers.

Today the Romani of Europe face the same discrimination they have faced for centuries.